PRODUCTION A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY
MEANT TO BE Makoto Shinkai’s anime films heavily inspired the visual world that Loeb dreamt up
Journey into place,” details Loeb. “There were lots of films and references that we discussed, but Shinkai’s films such as Your Name (2016), Suzume (2022) and Weathering with You (2019) were a guide for the tone of film we wanted to create. With the actors, locations and approach we had, it made sense to translate the feelings of anime into live action, while still grounding it in a reality.” Loeb explains that the collaborative process with Kogonada is fluid and natural. “We find common ground in a mixture of conversations about films of course, but our collaboration is deeply
inspired by food, ingredients and more intimate conversations about our flaws, mistakes and life lessons. We try to work those conversations into a form of visual representation and language building. We’ve been friends for a long time, and with time comes a sense of trust, so we are developing this as we move through life and our common projects.” Loeb opted to shoot the film using the ARRI ALEXA 35 because he wanted to capture it on a digital medium, with a 2:1 aspect ratio. “The ARRI systems are cameras I’ve used for a long time, and I find relief in the trust I have with them,” he says. For this film in particular, the ARRI ALEXA 35 “had the dynamic range, access to colour science and, when combined with the PVintage series from Panavision, the feeling we liked the most during testing. Along the way we also used a series of slant focus lenses, some Primos and a very small zoom. Generally speaking, it’s a feeling we’re looking for, and that’s not something we can pull out of a backpack. Testing and feeling our way through it was the approach.” Some sequences involved precise choreography, such as the umbrella wedding scene. “The choreography involved figuring out how we wanted the two characters to initially see one another, and for the moment to feel like one that slipped away,” says Loeb. “It was quite simple in reality – the issue was photographing both sides of the
THE ARRI SYSTEMS ARE CAMERAS I’VE trusted for a long time ”
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